How important is patient feedback?

We regularly stress on this blog that your practice is a business. Because we are in the business of providing a professional service, and that service comes through as more of a need of our customers than something they are voluntarily seeking, we sometimes lose sight that medical practices are businesses.

It is standard practice for businesses to solicit feedback from their customers. How does your practice facilitate feedback from patients? Are you required to survey patients for quality initiatives or to satisfy program requirements? If you aren’t currently soliciting feedback from your patients, consider starting this in your practice.

Managing your online reputation is critical in today’s competitive healthcare landscape. Patients are your best form of marketing and oftentimes, will use social media as their platform to tell others about their experience at your practice including, how long they wait for their appointments, how they are treated by doctors and staff, etc. Many patients just want their voice heard. It’s important to provide this forum within your own practice, and have an established strategy for reviewing and addressing feedback. An effective strategy may keep some unhappy patients off Yelp, and will give your practice an opportunity to improve in ways that matter to your customers.

When patients feel like their voice matters and that their feedback genuinely matters to the practice, it can help improve patient engagement, which can lead to improved healthcare outcomes. What practice doesn’t want that?